Mostly warm and dry weather allowed Michigan farmers to start making progress on planting last week. The USDA says planting progress remains behind last year and the five year average for corn, soybeans, oats and sugarbeets.

Just 32% of sugarbeets have been planted as of May 1st.

Top soil moisture is 100 percent adequate to surplus, sub soil moisture is at 99 percent.

On this day in history in The Citizen: May 2, 2017Auburn CitizenBeet test — Attending one of the sugar beet test plantings on the Tom Collard Farm in Owasco were, left to right, Paul W. Lattimore, chairman of the Area Redevelopment Organization of Cayuga County; Karl H. Wunderlich, technical manager of Incoseed ...

American Crystal Sugar Company general agronomist, Tyler Grove, remains concerned about the effects the lingering cold, wet weather will have on seedling beets.

“It’s going to take some investigative work by the staff, growers, and consultants to try to sort out what’s out there and what remains,” he said. “The weather forecast doesn’t look too conducive to try to sort that out, even in the short term, so we have to wait until this system passes and see what we have.”

Grove reminds growers to be patient once things start drying and warming up.

“The thing about planting is you only get one shot a really good seedbed,” he continued. “With seed choices and all the seed treatments that are out there… Choose your varieties and locations wisely and be cognitive that you might not get exactly what you want for seed and seed options the next time.”

Mohamed Khan chats with Mick Kjar on Farm Talk on AgNews 890am.

Mohamed Khan chatted with Mick Kjar on Farm Talk Tuesday and indicated that American Crystal has roughly 80,000 acres planted so far. Most of that has been planted in the southern area of American Crystal's region. In the northern region, a small amount of sugarbeets have been planted, but they need things to dry out and warm up.

Khan indicated that in the American Crystal growing area, the ideal planting date over the last 25-30 years has been April 25th. However, nearly the entire American Crystal region has received significant snowfall, which has abruptly halted planting for the last several days and will continue to do so until about the middle of next week.